Flickr Photo Plaintiffs Seek Cert in Privacy Class Actions Against Amazon, Google, Microsoft

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Flickr Photo Biometric Privacy Class Action Lawsuits Overview:

• Why: The plaintiffs accuse the tech companies of violating their privacy rights by collecting biometric information from their Flickr photos without permission. 
• Who: Two Chigaco residents asked for class certification in their class action lawsuits against Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facefirst Inc.
• Where: The class action lawsuits are pending Washington federal court

Two Chigaco residents have asked for class certification in their four separate class action lawsuits against Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facefirst Inc that allege each company violated their privacy rights by using geometric scans of their faces drawn from their Flickr photos without their permission. 

The lead plaintiffs, Steven Vance and Tim Janecyk, accuse the tech companies of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act by buying a “diversity in faces” dataset created by IBM Corp. The company allegedly used Flickr photos to build the dataset it sold to the tech giants, but failed to get permission to use the information.

Vance and Janecyk seek to represent a Class of Illinois residents whose faces appear in photographs linked to the dataset or a subclass of Illinois residents whose faces appear in photographs linked to the dataset and who uploaded those photographs to Flickr.

Tech Giants Draw Biometric Information from Flickr Photos

The class actions lodged against the tech companies allege the Class was never notified of their biometric information being collected or used, nor was their permission for the same ever sought. This “invaded all class members’ private domains,” says the plaintiffs. 

Class certification requires proof of numerosity, or enough members of the proposed Class. In their arguments, the plaintiffs note that the IBM dataset contains nearly 970,000 facial images and more than 5,700 Flickr photos geotagged in Illinois. 

How do you feel about tech companies’ ability to buy biometric information? Let us know in the comments below!

The plaintiffs are represented by Megan Pierce, David B. Owens, Michael Kanovitz, and Scott R. Drury of Loevy & Loevy, and Gary Lynch, Katrina Carroll, Kyle A. Shamberg, and Nicholas R. Lange of Carlson Lynch LLP.

The Amazon Biometric Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Vance, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-01084-JLR, in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle.

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